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| | | Nature offers a window on global natural history. Each week Mark Carwardine rubs shoulders with animals and experts, providing a unique insight into the natural world, the environment, and the magnificent creatures that inhabit it.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN 30 min | | | |
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"What I enjoy most about Nature is the incredible variety of subjects. One week we could be fishing for zooplankton off the coast of Iceland and the next we could be hunting for fossils in Dorset. We're also very fortunate in meeting many of the world's experts - all of whom are really passionate about their subjects. It's good being able to bring all of these experiences into one programme that truly explores the natural world."
Mark Carwardine |
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The Otter's Return
There’s never been a better time to see an otter in the British Isles. As Mark Carwardine discovers, otters are now turning up in the most unlikely places. Most river catchments now have otters as residents or passing through, but even our towns and cities are being colonised.
However, finding the animals themselves is a very different matter...most of us know what an otter looks like, but few of us have seen one in the wild. To see one for himself, Mark travels not to a remote Scottish sea-loch or tumbling Dartrmoor stream, but to a lake in urban Newcastle-upon-Tyne where otter expert Kevin O’Hara from the Northumberland Wildlife Trust can virtually guarantee sightings.
Colonisation of our towns is just one aspect of otter recovery. From their catastrophic decline caused by the use of chemicals such as dieldrin and aldrin in the 1960s and 1970s, otters have now made a good recovery in many parts of England and Wales. In Scotland too, where populations were always less badly affected, they are now spreading eastwards. The banning of the use of chemicals has been a major factor in helping otters return, helped by an improvement in water quality which has allowed fish populations to recover.
But otters are still failing to recolonise some areas as fast as might be expected. As Mark finds out in Worcestershire, cars and otters don’t mix, and traffic is a major cause of death for the species. 60% of those which don’t die from natural causes are killed on roads. On the newly-constructed Wyre Piddle by-pass near Pershore, Mark meets Andy Graham from the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust to see how new road designs can cater for otters by offering them safe routes in tunnels beneath them.
But the return of the otter isn’t good news for everyone. For alien mink, and for some fish farmers, otters are a bad omen. As otters enter river systems, the resident mink depart for good, only to return when the otters move on or spread out. For some anglers too, otters are less welcome and Mark hears from fishermen who have lost carp worth over £1500 each to otter sin a single night. As yet there is no financial assistance to fishery owners to provide otter-proof fencing, so this problem is likely to become more acute as otter numbers continue to increase.
Otters though, are popular with most people and yet are one of the least known of British mammals. We still can only hazard a guess at the total British population and work to identify how many animals are occupying a particular stretch of water based on the DNA of otter droppings (spraints) is still underway. It will be a long time before the otters’ secrets are unravelled, but with patience we all have a better chance of seeing one in the wild. | | |
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